A Unique & Very Rare Antique Sun and Moon Dial Silver Verge Pocket Watch c1815

  

A SINGULARLY DIFFERENT VERGE POCKET WATCH. Cased fusee verge sun and moon dial 200 year old pocket watch, made in Llangefni on the island of Anglesey in North Wales in 1815. Many years ago I took this watch to the Antiques Road show and met their then watch & clock expert at the time Simon Bull He was very impressed and said it was unique and in all his years with pocket watches had never seen one like it before, and that I would never find another like it again and that it was very rare. Years later I sent it to Cumbria to an expert watch repairer that I had been recommended to, He stripped it down and after many days of careful work and cleaning and oiling.

On being fully wound it runs the full length of the fusee chains. And runs for approx eight days. The beautiful solid silver pair cases are in terrific condition throughout fully hallmarked for Birmingham 1815. It is complete with the four watch repair papers, signed'Roberts, Llangefni' , the same town as where the watch was made. The outer case is 54mm in.

Diameter, the inner case 47mm. Ll clasps and hinges are in perfect condition closing perfectly as they should. The clear bulls eye glass is the original.

The silver cut out sun & moon. Dial has dots instead of numbers stamped into the upper half of the dial, and dots around the whole dial for the seconds, it has a very nice gold hand to tell the time, note that there is only one hand on this special watch. Simon bull considered the black full inner dial with the sun & moon & star impressions indicates this part of the dial to be from the late 1600s period. It is wound at the rear with the original adjustable Birch key that has always been with this watch. This unique movement is very difficult to describe so have taken many photos of it which I would ask you to please study carefully.

This is an all genuine rare pocket watch in all original condition, and has only had one other owner besides me. I have had this for many years, but now being over 80 years young its time for it to go.

This it is the last in my collection from the last 50yrs and you will never find another like it. This is a silver cased verge pocket watch made by Llangefni gentleman who signed himself as Gwilym ab Owain in 1815. The case is typical of the time and the only visible indication that something different is inside is the silver face of the watch which is unorthodox and at first, difficult to understand. It is fitted with a typical bulls-eye glass. The upper half of the dial has a cut away sector with a disk behind depicting either the sun or the moon.

Both sun and moon have a little peak visible which indicates. The hours against a crudely marked scale above and around the cut out sector Additionally, a gold minute finger conventionally mounted, indicates the minutes around the entire circumference of the dial. Both of these features are additionally complicated since they rotate and indicate in an anti-clockwise direction The idea is sound because the watch effectively shows twenty four hours by virtue of the fact that the moon is visible for twelve hours and the sun for the next twelve hours. The hour marks are, instead of being Arabic or Roman figures. Represented by a series of spots engraved into the silver.

The key wind Fusee mechanism of the watch is powered by two mainspring barrels , each connected together by chain and then by a second chain to the fusee. The purpose of the two barrels is to supply additional power, needed because an extra wheel has been inserted between the fusee and the centre wheel to cause the watch to run for up to one week on a single winding. This also causes the time indicator to run in reverse. Presumably there was insufficient space for another wheel to correct this. It has been possible to clean and oil the mechanism and it is now ticking but reliability and accuracy are doubtful, The engraving on the back plate and on the face of the watch is crudely done but then on the back plate has been mercury gilt in the normal way.

I would conclude that this is an experiment by a man working alone for his own use and benefit. It seems that he was a competent watchmaker but not an engraver and perhaps did not wish to involve the services of an engraver, maybe on cost grounds or perhaps he wanted to keep the watch to himself, a secret? He may have been an apprentice to another watchmaker and for his own reasons, kept his watch hidden.

This man was clearly trying to produce something innovative and may have hoped one day to make a name for himself, the fact that he did not become well known may be a story in itself. The movement is clearly marked no.

1-Why does there not appear to be another example or was there one once? The watch may be recorded somewhere , it appears not to have left Anglesey since it was made in Llangefni, and there are Four case papers, all from the same watchmaker, G Roberts in Llangefni. It is understood to have. The item "A Unique & Very Rare Antique Sun and Moon Dial Silver Verge Pocket Watch c1815" is in sale since Wednesday, October 04, 2017. This item is in the category "Jewellery & Watches\Watches, Parts & Accessories\Pocket Watches".

The seller is "pocketbox" and is located in .. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Material: Silver
• Year of Manufacture: 1815
• Display: fusee
• Escapement Type: Verge
• Case Colour: Silver
• Face Colour: Silver
• Movement: Mechanical (Hand-winding)
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom